Hasta La Gadget!

The BBC has been working on its own version of Microsoft’s IllumiRoom technology, a seven year project that creates immersive viewing by projecting wide-angle content around a central display. The technology, which the BBC describes as “surround video”, has been simmering in the broadcaster’s R&D labs since 2006, division director Alia Sheikh says, and in fact has already been used to film a live-action movie.

Just as Microsoft fashioned a dual-recording camcorder that can simultaneously capture a regular shot for the central screen, and a wide field-of-view counterpart to project around the TV, the BBC created a similar rig using a huge fish-eye lens. That secondary content is projected backward from the viewer, reflected off a curved mirror, and onto the walls and ceiling.

“We already know the human eye has much better vision in the center of your focal view, for things like detail, and colors, and shapes,” Sheikh explained of the concept behind the system, “and in your periphery you’re much more concerned with things like movement.”

However, while Microsoft’s IllumiRoom research uses Kinect to interact with objects in the room, creating a digital 3D map of furniture and then animating it to match on-screen video or gaming, the BBC’s system is a little less advanced. The projection system the BBC relies upon makes no differentiation about the surface it projects onto, and there’s no real-time processing taking place.

That fits in more with the BBC’s primary purpose of its unnamed system: for more immersive multimedia consumption, rather than something interactive like games. Nonetheless, the team has found that – with some careful planning of shots – it’s possible to create a far more interesting viewing experience that’s arguably less gimmicky than 3D.

For instant, while filming the 2011 movie Broken, they discovered that the “surround video” was much more successful when characters were running toward the audience, with the camera tracking back, rather than when following them.

More recently, an animated short called Kill Mode has been created to demonstrate the BBC tech, which will be shown off at the Sci-Fi London Festival this coming weekend. There’s no talk of commercializing the system at this stage, however.

BBC reveals IllumiRoom style immersive video tech is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It took the BBC six months to bring its iPlayer Radio app over from iOS to Android, but the results are even better than on the iPhone, at least according to the corporation’s executive producer for mobile. Stoking the never-ending Android/iOS fanboy arguments, the BBC’s James Simcock says the app – which brings streaming radio both live and on-demand, as well as behind-the-scenes videos – features improvements that “make it even better” than the first-gen software for iPhone released back in October.

Among the changes are a new navigation system, which relies on more straightforward gestures to navigate between stations, and better notifications thanks to integration with the Android drop-down menu. Android’s sharing system is taken advantage of too, with the iPlayer Radio app more readily swapping links to programs, artists, and tracks with other apps. The alarm clock also works even if the app isn’t running in the foreground.

The BBC team also jumped on board the HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) protocol to actually deliver content to Android devices, something that’s said to improve multitasking performance. Unfortunately, it also means you’ll need to be running Android 4.0 or above, and the BBC warns that, due to a firmware glitch that only certain carriers have addressed, some Samsung Galaxy S III owners might not find the app plays nicely with their handset. Broader availability of the fix is expected across UK carriers in the next month or so.

With the release of the Android version, it’s also the first time that iPlayer Radio has a layout specifically for tablets. So far, there’s no iPad counterpart, though of course iPad owners can still load the iOS version and use Apple’s screen-doubling to view it blown up for their display. The BBC says it will be looking at how it can bring the UI enhancements from the Android app to its iPhone counterpart in due course.

[via Guardian]

BBC fans the fanboy flames with streaming snark is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When we think of BBC iPlayer use on mobile devices, we most often picture someone catching up on dramas with their smartphone during the commute home. Not anymore: newly available March stats from the Beeb reveal that tablet viewing has overtaken phone viewing for the first time. The difference is slight — tablets are only 200,000 requests ahead, at 41 million — but it’s enough to suggest that many now prefer bigger screens when they’re away from a computer or TV. While the broadcaster hasn’t directly explained the change in demographics, it’s not hard to see a possible explanation based on viewer habits. The BBC notes that most tablet-bound iPlayer users watch TV, and most iPlayer TV time overlaps that of traditional viewing, when audiences are more likely to be at home with the larger devices at hand. If you’re one to curl up on the couch to watch Panorama on an iPad or Android slate, then, you may just be part of a growing trend.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD

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Source: BBC

Australians have long had access to the BBC, although a current four-channel lineup on Foxtel won’t completely satisfy fans of British TV when it’s just a sliver of the content they know. BBC Worldwide should be closing some of that (figurative) distance, though, with plans to offer a premium channel through Foxtel’s network. The as-yet-unnamed service will give Aussies a chance at first-run BBC shows about a year before they’d broadcast over the air there. and without ads. (Pretty good for not having a UK TV license.) The BBC content will naturally be available in HD, as well as for mobile streaming through Foxtel Go. About the only drawback to the channel outside of its premium nature is the mid-2014 start date, but that may be a small sacrifice for determined Anglophiles and ex-pats.

[Image credit: Teknorat, Flickr]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Via: The Next Web

Source: BBC Worldwide

BBC had three of its Twitter accounts hacked early this morning by a group that calls itself the Syrian Electronic Army, which accessed its BBC Weather, BBC Arabic, and Radio Ulster accounts to post somewhat strange public proclamations. The tweets have since been deleted, and BBC is back to being in control of its social accounts.

Instead of ranting about overt political motivations or other such common tweets that appear on hacked accounts, the Syrian Electronic Army posted fake weather snippets for various Middle Eastern locations, some with their own between-the-lines statement, while others were just altogether odd, such as the tweet: “Saudi weather station down due to head-on collision with camel.”

Other tweets read: “Chaotic weather forecast for Lebanon as the government decides to distance itself from the Milky Way.” and “Tsunami alert for Haifa: Residents are advised to return to Poland.” According to the BBC, this same group, which shortens its name to SEA, has in the past proclaimed support across digital mediums for the Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

In the announcement, the media company stated that a phishing email had been sent to some BBC email addresses. The email contained a link that would help the responsible party gain “password details,” but the email has not been tied to the attack at this time. The BBC issued an apology to its Twitter followers, saying that it “strongly condemns” such actions.

[via BBC]
Image via Sophos

Three BBC Twitter accounts hacked by Syrian Electronic Army is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.